Johnson Chapter 3 Blog

The thesis of Johnson’s third chapter is that capitalism created and perpetuates the tension that occurs between races, genders, classes, and sexual orientations. This is because it is the drive of corporations to earn money by paying workers as little as possible, which has been done by pitting groups against each other in competition for the same positions.

At the beginning, Johnson explains how the expansion of capitalism actually brought about racism because it was such an cheap (being free) source of labor. The goal of capitalism is to make as much of a profit as possible, which early capitalists did by relying on slave labor so that they didn’t have to lose any of their profit on paying for labor. Next he goes into how capitalism splits groups up even further into social classes. How the quality and type of work is paid more or less comparatively and therefore the people who work those careers are able to enjoy different styles of life. This is then related back to race, sex, sexual preference, and ability and the privilege value attached to them. For example white, heterosexual, non-disabilities men have the greatest privilege and are therefore more likely to get hired into a high paying job, putting them into an upper class. On the other side of things, a white, non-disabled, lesbian has her gender and sexual preference working against her and it is harder for them to reach high social classes. Johnson wraps up this chapter by explaining how being part of one privileged group doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll feel privileged since you may fall into other oppressed groups that may outweigh or trump your privilege group.

So if capitalism is the perpetuator of the privilege system, would a communistic system of economy be better for the world? Could a system based on equality cure all the social dysfunction of different groups? The major problems of communistic systems of the past have been that everyone has been held at a relatively low class without the opportunity for advancement. This means that people who truly did work hard and deserve to move up in the world couldn’t. Also, “equal” never means equal because there always has to be a group that rules over all of the others, to oversee the system. I’d say that communism probably still isn’t the way to go.

I thought this piece was rather thought-provoking, especially the parts about how belonging to certain oppressed groups can trump out and take away privileges that you would otherwise have. This is something that truly can be seen in everyday life, but I don’t usually think of it in association with privilege. I guess being part of the highest privileged group, means that I never have the need to see privilege, which makes you feel bad when you think about it.